Overview of the App Builder Process

The basic process of building and maintaining a user interface with App Builder is simple and straightforward. There are many variations on this formula, but the process is similar for any application.

1. Start App Builder. See "Starting and Exiting App Builder" .

2. Open a new project and a new module. See "Creating, Opening, and Saving Projects " .

3. Drag and drop windows (main windows and custom dialogs) to the workspace, creating a new module for each window, in most cases. See "Dragging and Dropping Palette Objects" .

4. Drag and drop panes onto main windows or custom dialogs. See "Dragging and Dropping Palette Objects" .

5. Drag and drop controls (buttons, choice objects, text fields, for example) onto control panes. See "Dragging and Dropping Palette Objects" .

6. Create pane objects, menus, and message dialogs. See Chapter 5, Creating and Editing Panes, Menus, and Messages .

7. Create help dialogs. See "Creating Help and Help Connections" .

8. Edit the properties of interface objects. See Chapter 4, Editing Properties of Interface Objects .

9. Make functional connections between objects in the user interface. See Chapter 6, Adding Functionality to the Interface .

10. Go into test mode to test menus, help, and connections. See Chapter 8, Testing Menus, Help, and Connections .

11. Display the Code Generator to generate code and make the user interface. See Chapter 9, Generating Code and Building an Application .

12. Add user code to the code generated by App Builder. See "Adding User Code to Generated Code" .

13. Debug the code, make and run the application.

14. Repeat the process to modify and maintain the user interface.